Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Nice job Isaac ... One of the best tuning examples I have heard here .... was beginning to think that good tuners were in danger of being overtaken by the new "Russian" method !!

Did you use cardboard in the wrest pins and a plactrum

Seriously though, don't get wound up by others, and if that is an example of the quality of your tuning ... you should regard your work an excellent example for others to aspire to match.

_________________________
Concert Tuner & Technician for the past 49 years in the United Kingdomand Member of the Pianoforte Tuners' Association (London)www.jphillipspianoservices.freeindex.co.uk : E-mail jophillips06@aol.com

The CFIIIs that I tuned Saturday broke a string during sound check, which made them happy to see me. They just break from time to time. It is no big deal. It takes about 10 minutes to replace, plus I had to replenish my carrying-around supply of #15-1/2 wire when I got home. I have replaced a number of strings on this piano, which is about 7 years old. That is par for the course for a heavily used concert grand. But the stage manager had not seen me do it before, I guess, so he was concerned, at least until he saw I was not.

That's a lot of breakage. I really don't think that's par, even for a heavily used concert grand! I've got grands at the colleges that haven't broken a single string over 20-30 years. Yes, the concert instruments too.

Today I returned to a little Whitney spinet piano that I serviced over a year and a half ago. On my first visit it had not been tuned since 1990 and averaged 150c flat. On the last visit I brought it up to pitch using the overpull feature in Tunelab. I had thought that on my visit today, I was certain that I would have to do another pitch raise. To my amazement it was pretty much exactly where I left it a year and a half ago. Just a few unisons to touch up here and there. I was amazed!!!!!

I know Whitney's have a bad rap, but on occasion I've seen perfectly good ones that play well and stay in tune. I think if a piano was regularly tuned when new, before the neglect started, they tend to hold a pitch raise better. I base this on tuning notes from previous techs. On the other hand, a piano delivered flat to the customer and never tuned can be pitch raised some 20 years later, and still not be stable. In that case, the piano may need several tunings to become stable.

Used the tilter to tip a piano on its back for some CA treatment. Tipping the piano is not one of my favorite jobs, but this one was not heavy, compared to most. Another successful resurrection of an otherwise useless piano!

This was yesterday, not today, but I only just got around to posting this.

A DIY Gone Horribly Wrong

A friend told me one of his neighbors had a baby grand he had set out to refinish himself - he's a handyman - but had now decided finishing the job wasn't in the cards for him, and was looking for someone to give the piano to. I went to check it out. It was a 1935 Starr, and I believe formerly had a reproducing action. It was sitting out in the driveway when I drove up.

It turns out he'd started and abandoned this project some 20 or so years ago, and yes, he stripped EVERYTHING. And yes, that's the pin block at the bottom of the photo. Wait! Where's the plate??? Oh, there it is! Leaning against a wall of the garage!

He removed and saved the old tuning pins, and the strings were saved in rusty bundles in the void between the lid and the case, along with half the damper action and all of the dampers.

He said it had sustained some water damage. At least half of the veneer was peeling off, and all of the ferrous metal parts were covered with rust.

I told him I wasn't equipped to do this level of work at this time. He was quite proud of what he'd done, and how he'd preserved it as well as he did. I didn't have the heart to tell him that if it hadn't been junk before he started, it was now.

Jerry : I know you are good at your job ... but having a crown made is a little over the top !!!

_________________________
Concert Tuner & Technician for the past 49 years in the United Kingdomand Member of the Pianoforte Tuners' Association (London)www.jphillipspianoservices.freeindex.co.uk : E-mail jophillips06@aol.com

Congrats Les, thats at that time we may take energy for the rest, as this is the "easy" part when we begin and take out everything ! I like that beginning , and I like to go thru most of the jobs without waiting, immediately, the next days ! as at some moment there is a necessity to stop and go outside tuning or whatever...

Edited by Kamin (05/30/1201:46 AM)

_________________________
It is critical that you call your Senators and Representatives and ask them to cosponsor S. 2587 and H.R. 5052. Getting your legislators to cosponsor these bills

Drove to a Nazarene church over an hour away to find the door locked. The pastor had forgotten about our appointment and would not answer his phone. His number was the only contact I had for the church. I saw the church's phone number on the side of their van and remembered that some churches will put alternate phone numbers in case of emergencies on their outgoing message...no such luck. I then called the music store that recently sold them the piano to see if they had any additional numbers for the church...they did not. On a whim I called another customer who also attends a Nazarene Church up closer to where I live and asked her if she might know of anyone who attended this church....she DID. She knew a lady now in her church that used to attend there. She called her, and then called me back and told me the lady said to go the the local school and ask for "Fran". So I did. Of course Fran was in a meeting all day and was not available but the superintendent of the school overheard my situation and said his next door neighbor attended the church. So he called him, the guy was actually home and met me at the church and let me in. After finally getting to the piano, it was almost exactly where I left it six months ago. Only a few unisons to touch up!! All this work for a little fine tuning. So the moral of the story ... always get more than one contact number for a church, and if you don't, be sure you are in a small town where everyone knows where everyone else attends church. LOL!!!!!

I would ask. Look at the amount of time you wasted trying to get in. Could have had one of them tuned by then. Just say, "I request a key to avoid any future mishaps such as this as well as any future service calls due to not being able to get into the building through not fault of mine." It does work...